the new york daily news op-ed: Making new york’s criminal justice system work again

Beginning in 1979 with my appointment to the NYPD, I have seen New York City’s criminal justice system from many angles: that of a street cop, a police executive, and a judge.

I have never seen the system as divided against itself as it is now. Legislators in Albany and City Hall, under the influence of activists, have undermined prosecutors’ and judges’ ability to protect the public. Some district attorneys have deprioritized or backed away from the prosecution of politically disfavored offenses. To make matters worse, judges face a confusing set of laws that prohibits them from considering dangerousness when making decisions on bail, leading some politicians to claim that they need to be “retrained.”

The consequences of the problem can be seen first and foremost in rising citywide crime rates, but also in a steady stream of horrific incidents in my home borough of Queens. Just days ago, a young woman trying to commute home on the subway in Howard Beach was violently attacked, severely beaten, and may even have permanent damage to her eye. This horrific crime was captured on video and the assailant is clearly recognizable. He has a history of mental illness, as a teenager beat his grandmother to death, and has two pending cases in Queens and Manhattan.

Last week in the early evening in Ozone Park, four innocent bystanders were shot, having been caught in a crossfire. Two of the victims were local high school students. This was the second mass shooting on Queens streets in less than two weeks.

Over the past several years, our city has experienced double-digit increases in homicides, shootings, robberies, grand larcenies, hate crimes, and quality-of-life offenses (shootings and homicides are trending down compared to last year, but every other crime is up year-over-year, and all are up sharply since pre-pandemic). The human toll from this stark increase in crime is impossible to quantify and has led to a rising sense of fear and disorder, from our streets to our subways.

We have a record of turning the tide. Beginning in the 1960s and continuing into the early 1990s, New York City’s homicides rose to more than 2,000 a year. In 1994, a dramatic turnaround began. The NYPD launched CompStat and began holding its officers and their superiors responsible for results. A culture of accountability was put in place and enforced by the courts.

Through laws passed in Albany and decisions made by prosecutors and judges, this culture of accountability has been undercut.

During my nearly 13 years on the bench, I witnessed firsthand the importance of the collaboration of judges, prosecutors, defense lawyers, social service providers and the police in making our public safety gains permanent. We worked together to create the first Citywide Supervised Release Program, Opioid Courts and Youth Courts. People who needed help received help. Those who refused to be helped or who reengaged in criminal behavior were met with consequences and held accountable. The leverage of the Criminal Court was essential to the success of these initiatives.

Then, the so-called progressives stepped in. The movement to close Rikers — by cutting the number of New Yorkers in custody in half, whether or not that’s realistically achievable — became a rallying cry. With little debate, leaders in the Legislature succumbed to political pressure to reform the system, passing sweeping and ill-conceived legislation that was crafted by advocates who were accountable to no one. The first casualty of this unchecked zeal for “reform” was the leverage the court system used to encourage individuals to seek help, obtain vital assistance and services pertaining to mental health, substance abuse, and housing, and avoid the cycle of repeated criminal activity. The second casualty was public safety itself.

Recently released state Division of Criminal Justice Services data is being touted by bail “reform” advocates as “proof” of the “success” of the recent changes to state law. This view is myopic and misleading. Even if it were to be taken at face value (which I am not), a statutory structure that undermines the criminal justice system’s ability to hold individuals accountable for multiple violations of law cannot be measured by solely focusing on broad data. Lost in this analysis are cases such as the Howard Beach subway station attack. In that case, an individual with a horrifically violent history was able to commit multiple offenses because he was previously released by judges, who were prohibited by law to consider the individual’s record and his threat to public safety. Ideology must not be permitted to trump sound policy.

We need to recognize the mistakes that have been made and reverse them. The Legislature must act without delay. District attorneys must make it clear that their primary obligation is to protect public safety in the communities they were elected to serve. They must ensure that their constituents know that those who break the law will be held accountable.

Grasso recently retired as the administrative judge for Queens Supreme Court, Criminal Term and previously served for 30 years with the NYPD, most recently as first deputy police commissioner.

Published in The New York Daily News

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-making-ny-criminal-justice-system-work-again-20221002-p7bwxbxkrrdr7nd4nzvbf5zjji-story.html